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GENERAL SPORTING COMMENT There is likely to be some racing of a high class in Chicago this year Men who have keen ¬ ly felt the shifty legislative pulse say that a thirty days bill is not possible but that one of fifteen days has a chance The rural element which knows racing only about harness horses and race meetings of six or less days duration each year is strong in the present legislature Theres no money there to use among the talent in favor of the grease of a racing bill Washington Park doesnt care Harlem isnt in a spending way and the genius of Hawthorne Ed Corrigan is in California attending to his business and ready to take whatever does or does not come in a legislative way The Wiley bill has settled ideal Park It must rest for a long term So must Milwaukee If the fifteen days Illinois bill passes Chicago will virtually have ninety days of racing this year Washing ¬ ton Park can have a glorious meeting of fifteen days It might do worse than to adopt Ideal Parks stakes an array worthy of any race course Hawthorne and Harlem would hold sharp fifteen days meetings and around the three Chicago tracks would be the Indiana frame of fortyfive days more Porsyth opens for fifteen of these days nezt Thursday It has the horses for good racing already in its stables If during Forsyths racing term an Illinois bill should pass the Chicago tracks would favor horsemen by so arranging their meetings that the gaps between the Chicago aud Indiana are as short as possible Arbitration and its common sense is the idea for application to the local future Wise oper ¬ ation of racing hereabouts will cultivate legis ¬ lative sense to a bill that will at least give mod ¬ est protection to one of the most important in ¬ dustries of Illinois horse breeding That industry without racing and the speculation of intelligence and public morality isnt an indus ¬ try at all Therefore what racing interests there are bearing on Illinois and keen to Chi cego Indiana has the right to be included should be recognized in full A meeting of the owners of such interests should be held as early as possible It should assign dates The harness people must also be represented and well treated Without them Chicago will be as barren as it has been since 1894 Such a conference may broaden the views of the men who shape the harness horse interests of Illinois There will be ninety days for thoroughbred racing in Chicago and its Indiana suburbs should the Illinois bill in contemplation pass The three Chicago tracks have fortyfive days of this term Forsyth Ind will race from April 15 to April 30 There must be a thirty days gap between the Forsyth meeting and that of the other tracks in Indiana That term ends June 3 During the thirty days following a Chicago track should hold a fifteenday meet ¬ ing Such arrangement will keep horses in the local field and benefit the general racing there ¬ of ofIndianas Indianas eligible dates after Forsyths close begin July 4 a keen date The conference could consider its assignment and after it the racing dates of the four tracks for the remain ¬ ing sixty days after the term including and following Independence day In such days as those arbitration is necessary and wise It is sincerely to be hoped that if the Illinois fifteen days bill passes no conflict of tracks or in ¬ terests in and around Chicago will ensue
